When exploring for natural resources located in or near underground strata or other underground structures, the use of vibrators, shock generators, geophones, hydrophones, and similar devices to act as seismic signal generators and/or receivers is well known to those skilled in the art. Generated seismic waves are typically reflected from geologic structural features and the reflected waves are analyzed to locate each reflecting feature. If multiple seismic sources and receivers are used to generate three dimensional seismic data using these devices, processing this data can require extensive computer resources and complex software to identify underground structures that may indicate zones where wells should be drilled to recover natural resources such as oil or natural gas.
Prior art processing methods have attempted to correct, time shift, amplify, filter, noise attenuate, or otherwise enhance seismic-derived displays representing underground structural features. For example, a recent signal processing method as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,563,949 issued on Oct. 8, 1996 divides an underground volume into cells and obtains a cross-correlation measure. However, these prior art processing and display methods are costly, require extensive computer processing/storage capabilities, and have inherent limitations.